Lucknow: Last week, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that no riots took place in the state in the last five years. BBC News has examined this claim made by him and other claims regarding law and order in the state ahead of the elections.
Earlier too some leaders had made the similar claims.
The official data obtained from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) gives the information of total riots including the communal riots. According to these figures, no communal violence has taken place in the state since 2018 but when in 2017 after the BJP came to power in the state, 195 communal incidents have been recorded.
Picture Of Figures
As per BBC News, the figures of the total number of riots in Uttar Pradesh present a different picture.
Overall, there has been a decline in riot cases since 2017 but it saw an increase of 7.2% between 2019-20.
The state joined the top five states, including Maharashtra and Bihar, to have reported the most riots.
Before BJP came to power in the state, in 2016, 8,016 riots were reported in the state.
Since then in 2017 the number was 8,900; It was 8,908 in the year 2018 and 6,126 in the year 2020.
Claim: The crime rate has come down by about 60 percent during the tenure of the Yogi government.
Fact Check: As per BBC News, this is wrong. [There has been a reduction in crime but not as much as it is being told. There has been a shortage, so should we call it a half-truth.]
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said these things during one of his speeches in Saharanpur, West UP.
According to the NCRB report, crime has been kept in two categories. One which comes under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the other those which come under the Special Law or Local Law (SLL).
The Parliament of the country makes those special laws which are related to specific subjects like narcotics whereas local laws are made for a particular area.
According to the NCRB report, the total crimes registered under IPC after 2017 are increasing.
BBC News looked at data between 2013 and 2020 for an accurate comparison. The last four years of the Akhilesh Yadav government and the first four years of the present Yogi government.
A total of 991,011 were registered under the IPC between 2013 and 2016.
Over the next four years, the number of crimes under this category increased to 1,360,680, registering an increase of 7 per cent.
Meanwhile, the total number of crimes reported in the state rose to 3,514,373, 3,514,373 under the SP rule and 2,471,742 under the BJP rule. So it decreased by 7 percent under BJP rule.
It is the most populous state in the country and it also remains the state with the highest crime rate. It was at the third position in the total number of criminal cases registered in 2020.
Claim: Compared five years of Yogi and your (Akhilesh) tenure. Dacoity decreased by 70% in Yogi government… Murders by 30%, murders due to dowry also decreased by 22.5%.
Fact Check: As per BBC News, partly correct.
Home Minister Amit Shah also said these things in his rally.
It is true that the cases of dacoity have decreased during the BJP rule but the official estimate of NCRB is a decline of 61% and not 70%.
If we compare with the entire tenure of SP (2012-16), then in BJP’s four years (2017-20) this figure falls to 57%.
In the case of murders, there has been a decline in that period. Murders have decreased by 20% in 2017-2020 as compared to 2013-16.
But instead of a decrease in dowry deaths, a partial increase of 0.4% has been observed.
Claim: There was a time when not only did riots take place here, but our daughters also had to be sent out (to other states) for studies because there was no security here. But today no daughter of western Uttar Pradesh needs to go out to study for security reasons. Today no one will dare to misbehave with you.
Fact Check: As per BBC News, crime against women has increased.
Home Minister Amit Shah said this in an election rally.
Crimes being committed against women have been kept in different categories in the NCRB report. These include crimes like dowry death, murder after rape, cruelty to husbands, kidnapping, and abetment to suicide.
Between 2013 and 2016, the number of crimes against women stood at 156,634.
This figure increased to 224,694 during 2017-2020, that is, an increase of 43%.
The state has seen a 17% drop in crime against women between 2019 and 2020. But this state tops in the number of such crimes against women. After this the number of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Assam comes.
A recent National Commission for Women (NCW) report revealed that they received a total of 31,000 complaints in 2021, more than half of them from UP.
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